Green Kids Drop-In Child Care

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our newsletter. Photos, events, and articles you won't find online. And it all comes directly to you without you begging. When was the last time your kids did that?

I know, it is really hard to leave your kids….well, at least to do the initial drop-off. But Green Kids makes it easier.

Located in Durham near Southpoint Mall (over in the Renaissance Center by Melting Pot) this is a pay-by-the-hour drop-in child care service. You don’t need reservations (although they do fill up during the weekend evenings so you might want to sign up in advance then), and they have extended late night and weekend hours. The price is decent. It is a somewhat complicated structure based on how many hours you sign up for, and you can buy a bunch of hours in advance and use them whenever you want through the year. But it is basically $10/hour. There is an Annual Enrollment fee of $25 per family.

The interior of this place is just great. Called “Green Kids” because they are striving for a small ecological footprint, they advertise no VOC paint, Earth friendly cleaning products, “mostly kid-powered toys,” and natural & recycled content carpeting. Only non-toxic art supplies are used. They also advertise healthy and organic snacks, but I do know that they order lunches and dinners from McDonald’s and Wendy’s, so I think everything is fair game when it comes to making kids happy. This is a peanut free facility, so they do not order from Chick-fil-A.
Children must be 1 & walking and under 12 years old in order to spend time at Green Kids.

The interior is very, very cool. There are many areas in the center set up for various play: dress up, kitchen, a tiki hut, blocks, a train table, puppets, and a big slide. I was really impressed with it, and could definitely spend some time there myself!

All staff is CPR and First Aid certified, and pass through background checks. They were also very sweet. The ratio of caretaker to child works as follows: 10 children for 1 caretaker if the children are over 2, 5 children for 1 caretaker if the children are under 2. It isn’t great, but it may actually work for this space. The area isn’t large, it is kid proof, and the children are well contained.

Children can stay for a maximum of 4 hours. There are stringent first-time registration processes in place for safety, so plan ahead the first time you go.

Parents are welcome to tour the site and meet staff before dropping off their kids or making any decisions about using Green Kids’ services. It is a shoe-free facility only, so bring socks.

And there is a movie theatre right around the corner. So no more excuses now, mom & dad, for missing date nights!

Thanks for the note! They do, indeed, have many organic options but the information I received was direct quote from the Green Kids folks back in 2010. It most likely has changed since then. We love Green Kids (just used them the other week), though, and thank you for the clarification!

disclosure

Mom in the Triangle is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com